North County Patriot Day

[Arne]

Got to camp with family and friends up at San Elijo over the weekend. Swinginfish came by Friday evening with the family for some good chit chat, fish tacos and all the fixins.

Perfect weather all weekend - some cloud cover in the am with a light breeze that kicked up just enough to blow the clouds out for the afternoon on the beach. I could see the "hotel" in LJ from our camp site and was planning to fish off of it Sunday - just a bit father north than usual. On Saturday my kids were searching for sand crabs so we could throw them out on my buddy's surf rig. Tough little guys to find for some reason, but my 10 year old came through with some nice ones - threw them out for a guitar fish and small shark. I didn't have the camera, but you should have seen the faces on the kids when that guitar fish came out of the water.

Took the yak out on Sunday morning early - launching right in front of Charlies restaurant. Met Mr Peach (Paul) and Marz (Kevin) at the launch and they gave me the lay of the land. Really nice to meet up with you guys and put a face to the name.

I punched through the minimal surf and headed out to the kelp - which I found is nothing like LJ, but a beautiful spot all the same. The short paddle out made it all the more enjoyable. Glassy conditions, very light winds, and an incredible sunrise.



Although bait was popping all over inside the surf line, I couldn't find much once past the surf. While Paul and Kevin worked on the inside kelp line I moved out into deeper water. I was having a real tough time making bait -Paul and Kevin explained that they rarely spend much time making bait up there and I was in the midst of finding out why they don't. Finally caught a tiny lizard fish that I was going to toss back, but decided I'd let him swim around the footwell for a while.

Since I couldn't find any other bait I stuck my little lizard fish on my bottom-fishing rig and threw out the sabiki once again. Almost immediatley I get picked up on the bottom and started pulling on what I thought was a big old grumpy bass. But half way up it stops fighting and I'm thinking ... and hoping ... it's - YES! My first Flatty was coming up from the deep. I had it on the wrong side of my yak, missed him with the first pass of the gaff and then screwed up when I broke the surface with its head. I'd loosened the drag since I knew something like that would happen so he very quickly made his way back down to the bottom. My heart was racing since I've been trying for one of these for months and, frankly, was scared of what would happen once on board (hearing all the stories of Butts going Richter on people). I rearranged the sabiki to the other side of the yak and moved the line around the bow so I could bring it up on the right side. The second time up everything went as planned. Gaffed my first real Butt ever from the yak just before 7 am. 8)

Mr. Peach came over and kindly took my otw pic and I paddled in with a big smile and a pretty dry landing.



I'd definitely like to hit the north county a bit more often ... and once again, a BIG THANKS to Paul and Kevin for being so hospitable and open with the information.

Good luck all,
Arne